Melody of Memory
by Cozmos
Summary: Music was her life, her soul. Regardless of whether it was the past, or the present, it was always a part of her. Unfortunately she was not aware of the turning point until she was forced to finally, remember the past. Main pairing: Haruhi x Yuki
1. A Prologue

**Melody of Memory**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. **

November 1, 2011

"Kyon!!" Haruhi's voice immediately vibrated through my ears like the sound of annoying fly whizzing nearby.

"What?!" I retorted.

"Why can't you play that thing a little bit better? It doesn't make much sense to me that it is making such a silly noise."

"What are you talking about?!" I said, irritated. "I already said that I can't play it. You are the one who forced me to do it regardless first of all!"

"Well.." Haruhi mumbled under her breath, "You can keep trying then."And there she flew away from me to talk to another guy in the room. "But remember not to break it!" she shouted to me on her way.

Sighing, I decided to mess around a little bit more with the silvery thing I was currently holding in my hands – a bass. I never ever hold one in my hands before, and that ignorant Haruhi had just tortured me to death by forcing me to learn the musical instrument as fast as I could.

Haruhi, optimistic as she always appeared to behave, was apparently killing me over forming a band. Not that this was a super random idea, for she already performed by herself many times in our college as a singer. She did have some great voice, I got to admit, which was the reason why so many bands in our college was offering jobs for her. It seemed like after some continuous performance, the mighty Haruhi was intoxicated by the idea of forming a rock band, with she as the lead singer, of course.

Haruhi and I have been friends since high school started by some interesting meetings. Regardless, as if I had not accompanied her enough during high school, she had miraculously managed to get to the same university as I did, despite her having better grades than I. Probably because of the perpetual years I got to endure with her "nagging" alongside me, or the factor that I myself had a somewhat troublesome sister at home I had to sometimes take care of, I actually never seemed to mind to be with her. I even thought that my life would be too boring without her as my friend. Not to mention bitter.

For a starter, let's look at our current condition now. Haruhi and I had now been spending about two hours or so in a band rental studio near our campus. She had successfully driven four guys to try practicing with us in the studio, but somehow one hour later, three guys drifted off the room and refused. That left one guy, Haruhi, and myself. The other guy's name was Koizuki Itsuki, whom through my senses, appeared to click with Haruhi. I heard them chattering about music, bands, and many other stuff I heard over my time dwelling with the unfamiliar instrument in my hands. It seemed like that Koizuki guy was really good in playing any musical instruments, but he was especially good in drums. Despite the novice I appeared to be, I could still hear and see his outstanding ability with drums when he played it in front of us all. His hands moved really fast with the drum sticks, and even though he played by himself, every beats he made seemed to really make one full music composition. That's how deft he was in my humble opinion. Aside from the musical ability, it kinda pissed me to admit that he got such a handsome face on his own as well. It was not fair that he could play music and had a good looking face, whether I, on the other hand, had neither. Oh well.

Anyway, Haruhi would likely make a pretty good band if only we had some other members beside Haruhi and Koizuki. They did not necessarily need to be as good looking as these two were, but they definitely needed to show up so I could at least get out of this troublesome task Haruhi gave to me in case we had problems with band members. So right now, I sincerely praying that God would show his way to all of us and bestowed our newly formed rock band with other members as soon as possible.

"Kyon!" All of the sudden, the witchy voice who belonged to the person I greatly was troubled by cried out. "We all are leaving to find some potential members out there. Are you coming?"

"Of course!" Excited to be tortured no more with the bass, I jumped off the stage and ran to Haruhi's side, out to the outside world.

It was a nice evening outside, with a rather cool wind brushing our skin along our way walking down the street. They sky was nice and clear; no sign of raining whatsoever- it would indeed be the perfect day to go on picnic. The three of us were now out in the crowd, walking side by side with Haruhi in the middle, Koizumi on her left, and I on her right.

"So.. where shall we go?" Haruhi inquired.

Before no one could response, I asked, "Are you sure that you are just going to pick some people up from the street to be in the band?"

"Yeah, why?"

I shrugged, "Just asking."

Koizuki launched her billion dollar smile and said, "Do you all want to see and look at the center square? It looks like there's some kind of performance being held there."

"Good thought, Koizumi!" Haruhi fumed energetically.

It was true that a lot of people were going to the center square, knowing that something was going on in it. Judging by the posters glued and flyers distributed by the people near it, it might be quite interesting. We arrived there five minutes later, and saw some mini stands were lining and circling up inside the square. The smell of food was filling the air right away as we stepped inside the city square. It seemed like a food festival or some kind of it was going on. Apparently not a performance.

"Well," Koizumi started, "Since we are here, do you two want to grab a bite?"

It turned out that the three of us were hungry and ate quite ravenously. It was even possible to think that all the stands got quite a profit for having all three of us trying all the different food in the festival. From sushi to spaghetti, we had all of it in our stomach. It was amazing how our stomachs were capable of receiving such disorder food. It even triggered me a little to do a research concerning how our stomachs could compare with the black hole in our universe.

"Okay, I'm full." I muttered lazily. "Let's just go to home and rest, shall we?"

"No way, Kyon. You are staying until we get at least one other member in our band."

Haruhi then stood up from the table we were eating in, and followed by Koizumi – who gave me a meaningful look before he stood - strode out of the city square.

"What a pain.." I mumbled under my breath but decided to follow them.

And therefore the fateful encounters were flying on its way, getting closer with every step we took further from there on.

Haruhi was of course, oblivious to all of them.

* * *

This is my first Suzumiya Haruhi fic, I hope you like it. Thanks for reading! Review is greatly appreciated!


	2. Chapter 1: An Encounter

**Melody of Memory**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. **

September 2007

Standing solely on top of the school building, Suzumiya Haruhi had been spending over five minutes by staring intensely on the scenery below; trees, buildings, crowds, busy streets. Engulfed in her carelessly worn high school uniform which flickered in the wind, one could see her strong, rebellious manner almost immediately. The aura hovering within her even gave the kind of self-built wall where people would just instantly keep their distance.

Despite how petrifying she seemed to be, however, Haruhi was just a teenager herself. She loved the feeling she got whenever the cool winds brushed her cheeks off, and the flickering sound of the leaves fluttered in her ears when she looked down from a high building. No need to mention that one of the reason why she liked to be in the roof so much was due to this. Her high school's roof – North High's – was apparently the number one on her top list.

"Ah, there you are Haruhi," a male voice coming behind her interrupted her thought.

Haruhi tensely steered her back to face the source of the voice. "Oh, it's you." Slowly, she began to relax at knowing that it was her friend who came. "Kyon."

As a matter of fact, Kyon could probably be considered the only one in the entire school who befriended with her. The other students? It would be a miracle if they willingly talk to her.

"So what have you been doing by yourself?" Kyon asked, sitting herself on the floor near where Haruhi stood. Opening up his lunch box, he inquired, "Have you eaten yet? Want some of my lunch?"

"No, not really."

"You sure you don't want this yummy omelet right here?" He pointed out the yellowish dish with his chopsticks.

Haruhi stared at the omelet for a second, then answered, "Not interested."

"You know, Haruhi," Kyon muttered while munching her lunch, "It's unusual of you to just let me eat my lunch without touching the smallest bit of it." He gulped down the food in his mouth and continued, "Are you suffering from ano.. anoxia or something?"

"It's anorexia, stupid." Haruhi managed a little chuckle from her only friend's silliness.

Kyon smirked, "Yeah, that! Are you?"

"Of course not, dummy. I am just in no mood to eat. I'm just having such terrible days these past two days."

"Oh well, okay."

The roof then started to sound quiet one more time, save the sound of light breezes winding the air. Not noticing how time passed – not that she paid any attention to it either-, as usual, Haruhi heard Kyon chirped, "Lunch's over, Haruhi. Let's go back to class."

Walking down the stairs back to the class, Haruhi felt some kind of tension was building up on along her way. Not that it was rare or anything, but it tiring her how she had to perpetually accept such treatment. People were eyeing her with such look that inwardly stabbed her deeply, but outwardly did no harm whatsoever. The figure of Suzumiya Haruhi was a mixture of fear for some people, eccentric for some weird students, and a lot others random impression– most likely bad – that the girl herself would not bother to know. Haruhi was not in the group of those who was popular despite her apparent beauty and athletic skills, and nor was she a friendly student. Not that she intentionally built those tough, anti-sociable girl images on purpose, however.

Thanks to her own reputation as an impulsively rebel and brusque girl since junior high, the bad impression was already there when she got in high school. What made things even worse was the fact that her father was a well know yakuza for his impatience and low toleration rate of the poor. It was a miracle as to how her Dad still got a job with such bad social reputation. In front of her Dad everybody would bow down of fear more than respect, and they would not dare say false words upon him or whoever related to him. But behind him, was none else than the harsh world Haruhi unavoidably got herself into when everybody but avoided her, made sarcastic remarks about her, or mocked her. They got even braver when Haruhi made no attempt whatsoever to stop it. Even among teachers, Suzumiya Haruhi's level was judged as the kind of students who would always bring nothing but trouble for their own sake. His father, being a busy man as he was, knew nothing of these circumstances. And for some reason, neither did his daughter bother to say a word about it.

"I'll see you later," Kyon tapped her shoulder and went to his class.

Kyon always opined his disappointment of having different class with her, but Haruhi herself was indeed grateful for the circumstance. Being a good guy as Kyon was, he never got into trouble in purpose. But by hanging out occasionally with her, Haruhi, the girl treated as delinquent in the school, would undoubtedly raised his potential of being harmed, somehow. It always perplexed her how she was the one considered to be delinquent, and not the people who bullied or attacked her. True, it was her sense of justice and balance in the world which she needed to hold back whenever she saw wrong doings. But she was just who she really was – it was her natural personality that she could not forgive evil doings when she could help it. Nevertheless it was always she, she alone who often accused with some false events done by others just because she happened to appear in wrong place, at a wrong time.

Having been teaching herself a self defense since she was in elementary school, it was hard to deny that she may just be the last person standing had a fight occurred. Then when she did become the 

last person standing, people usually interpreted the scene in a totally opposite way from the fact. Haruhi caused the fight first, or Haruhi hired some yakuza to beat them; those types of conclusion were always the final. Being a daughter of the most despicable yakuza, Haruhi just did not have the will or the heart to speak up. She knew her Dad had probably done a hundred times worse that what she received to others, so in this case she would just bear with it. It was stupid, she knew, but she did not care. No matter how smart she appeared to be, or how calm and harmless she seemed to look, people always heaved up their pessimism whenever they looked at her. A delinquent was what she looked like to most people.

It was a tough life Haruhi was having, but she did not hate the people who accused her but rather pitied them because deep inside she knew that they were being fooled and manipulated by social rumors. To tell the truth, she liked it at school better than she did at home. Regardless of the treatment she received, or whether people talked to her or not, she did not feel alone in school. She knew that they would all see the truth some day, and there was no need to rush them to see. It sometimes amazed her also as to why Kyon was able to see the other side of her which other people normally could not see, and even hanged out with her as often as he could. The North High's students were only aware of the fact that Kyon hanged out "occasionally" with Haruhi, but the truth spoke the total opposite. The friendly guy hanged out with her at all school lunches, sometimes after and before classes, and even some times on the weekends. Kyon was the only one who ever met her parents, and the only one whose house she ever stayed and came over to. And probably the only one who got rewarded with her socially-known-to-be-extremely-rare smile, on occasions.

Haruhi did not pay any attention to the class until the rest of the school for the day was over. When the bell rang, she snapped her school bag and walked out from the class idly. After school, the next activity on her list was to go to work. In order to gain money, she must work. Finding a job was really hard when you were known to be such a bad kid, but an old man in a music store sympathized with her and even gave her a job in his store. The old man was really kind and generous, and Haruhi could not help but like him as a result.

The music store was located in the center of the city where there was usually a lot of people shopping. She usually worked from three to eight, and sometimes until ten. It always depended on how many customers they seemed to have for the day. And to the owner's benefits, Haruhi did not mind to work late anyway. Her jobs in the store usually consisted of that of cleaning the display mirror, setting up the right position for the musical instruments to be hung, turning on and off the electrical keyboard, encouraging customer to buy, and as a cashier. It was pretty much everything.

"So, Haruhi, find a boyfriend already?" the old man asked Haruhi while she was setting up the cricket guitar to its former position.

Smiling slightly, she answered, "Not yet, Yamato-san. Sorry to disappoint you."

"You should really get one, Haruhi. It's good for your health," the old man laughed on his own joke. "What about that guy you always hang out with?"

Haruhi almost lost her grip on the guitar when she heard that. "Don't tell me.. you are referring to Kyon?!"

Yamato chuckled. "Yes, him!"

To Yamato's disappointment, Haruhi's reply was interrupted by the arrival of a customer – a lady - who was interested in a keyboard. Immediately Haruhi greeted her, and being an almost professional as she might, blocked off her true personality to that of a cheerful, persuasive seller. The lady was the only customer they had for the day, and at around eight o'clock, Haruhi was let go by Yamato-san.

The old man's last words to her were, "Keep any eye for him! He may turn out to be your type, Haruhi!" which Haruhi replied with a long sigh.

It was a little darker than usual today when she walked back to her house, and the weather was a bit chillier, she noticed. Haruhi slowly trotted her way down out of the city center to where her house was located, which was ten minutes away from the school. Three minutes walking and she was already out of the crowd, off to a more silent environment. She was about to pass an old building when she heard a threatening voice of a male.

"I said, pay it, young lady!" the voice sounded so brutal and rude that if Haruhi were to be smart, she would just want to make no trouble and walked off. Unfortunately, Haruhi was never to be the "smart" one who would just wash her hands out whenever she sensed troubles. Not to mention that this "bad" Haruhi was the same one who often gave her the trouble of being treated as a bad student.

"I had given you the money you deserved," a quiet voice retorted back.

Deep inside, Haruhi prayed_. _She knew this kind of conversation was always the one who got her attracted to a fight. The typical bad guys bullying over the weak ones. _Please don't make this a robbery or anything like it that I will be unintentionally involved with. Well, not completely unintentionally.. _

"As I said, it's not enough!" the manner-less voice cried, a male's. Then all of the sudden his tone changed to a little more sweet, eerie one, "So I suggest you pay with what your sweet, little self. How 'bout that? Easy, eh?"

To Haruhi's surprise, the other voice - apparently a girl - still got the guts to reply, "No."

Even though she did not see it Haruhi could sense that the man was smirking in his reply. "You can't escape, young lady. Here I come-"

The next thing Haruhi heard was a loud slam of a metal thing, a noisy scream of the guy who seemed to be in pain, and unfortunately the next moment, a laughter coming from more guys. It appeared that the guy was not alone, and the girl was helplessly surrounded.

Sighing, Haruhi cursed herself of being unable to see anymore unjust. She already had a father who somehow did wrong things for living, and she did not want to have it 'more' in her life. Haruhi could not even stop herself of saying, "Hey there, bastards!" out loud.

A group of men's voice muttered something unintelligible, but Haruhi had successfully gained their attention. The group walked their way out of the dark aisle they were in before, to the road Haruhi was standing in.

"Oh, it's the bad ass kid, Haruhi!" said the man in the center, who had the same voice as the first man he heard and who also appeared to be the leader of the gang. He was a muscular, huge man with a nasty spiky black hair hanging straight up his skull like an antenna. Haruhi did not remember having an encounter with this guy before, but he seemed to memorize her.

_Must have been those fights I got into before.._

"Beat her up, boss! She pissed me off last time!" a voice claimed from the right. The owner was another huge man with black tattoo all over her neck who was now looking at Haruhi with so much disgust.

"Yeah! Yeah!" the others' spirits got all pumped up to beat the crap out of Haruhi.

"Shut your dirty mouths!" Haruhi bellowed, silencing the entire gangster. "I don't know what's going on in your minds, but apparently I haven't done anything to any of you today."

"Don't mess around!" the guy who appeared to hate her utterly growled. "You haven't done anything here yet, but you had in the past."

"..I don't remember that." Haruhi stated calmly.

"Well, well," the gang leader moved forward. "We can't just expect a stupid girl like her to remember, can we?"

Cautiously, Haruhi stepped back but shut her mouth this time, sensing a rampage aura coming.

"After all," the huge guy's eyes stared on hers mockingly. "She was born in the most worthless family ever."

They gang laughed in union as if to make fun of Haruhi. They seemed to enjoy harassing her with words so much that the laughter was getting stupider and stupider they even started to point their fingers at her and just laugh because of it. Haruhi could feel her blood was boiling to kill this guy in front of her who had just insulted her personal problem. She could barely hold herself any longer. Her patience was wearing down by every second she stood there doing nothing.

"Shut up," Haruhi said in a seriously menacing tone. The tone was so cold that everybody stopped laughing in an instant. "You don't have any rights to criticize me."

"Although," she continued on. "I don't think speaking with a bunch of fools like you will make any difference." Haruhi directed her icy cold stares to all the guys and said, "Pathetic."

"How dare you.. How dare you say we're pathetic!" The leader cried in anger. "I'm gonna kick your ass Haruhi!"

"Yeah, kill her boss!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

"Oh well," Haruhi launched her evil grin and maintained a battle position, "Bring it on."

And before the guy could even react, Haruhi kicked his "thing" and slipped off to where the girl was being held by the group in the dark, kicked them "there" as well, grabbed the girl's hand, and tried to escape.. But was stopped by another heavy muscular-built man, and therefore was again surrounded.

_Damn!_

"Not so easy, Haruhi," he mocked, standing in front of her while grinning in satisfaction. "Big in your mouth as usual, huh?"

Being in the center with the almost-rescued girl on her right, Haruhi could feel the sweat started prickling its way down her forehead. She accidentally miscalculated this battle from the beginning. Fighting this many people could be pretty much an inconvenience on her side, and she must think of the most effective way to save the girl. It was not that she could not fight them, but saving the girl was the first priority for now. To protect is always harder than to attack, that was the fact. She forced her brain to think of a way to run away as hard as she possibly could when she heard an almost inaudible tone whispered, "Fight."

When Haruhi's response was nothing but her stiffening sign of body and grip of the girl, she again was shocked by the movement done by the girl. She remembered having the girl slipped off her palm out of hers, and rushed to the group of men, kicking and throwing with an unbelievable judo-like skill. Flabbergasted, it took her a couple of seconds to register the circumstance before fighting the men with all she got. She always had the advantage of being fast and flexible, and she was also good in hand to hand combat, thanks to 6 years experience in intense taekwondo. And now dealing with the men was made easier thanks to the unexpected performance of the girl beside her.

After ten minutes of some loud kicking, jumping, screaming and punching from the battle, it was over. And the winner was undoubtedly, the combination of somewhat judo and taekwondo skill. Two high school girls had won over a battle against one gang consisted of huge, brainless men.

Unfortunately for Haruhi, a public crowd had by now gathered near the spot where they fought, and most of them were now looking directly at her. Some even pointed their hands at them, some whispering something amongst themselves, and some blurted out the look of utter surprise at what had happened. They must have made quite a noise to make these many people huddled up.

Knowing full well of what would happen next, Haruhi looked at the very same girl who just fought with her and whispered in urgency, "Go. Don't let them see you with me."

Silence briefly fell upon them, and when Haruhi pursued the matter further, she was met with the most calming pair of amber eyes whose owner apparently refused to obey her command.

More anxiety grew in Haruhi's heart by every seconds passing. "Don't be stupid. Just go."

"Come." To Haruhi's surprise, the other girl's voice had a somewhat commanding aura in it.

Haruhi was quite taken aback by it, and as if the decision was final through the smaller girl's stern sentence, Haruhi nodded quietly as the answer. The two of them then sprinted back in the dark aisles and climbed through their way with whatever they could find to aid. Either nobody noticed them, or they were the ones who were too fast for eyes to see, Haruhi did not hear any stupid insults being directed at them when they escaped. They sprinted in an amazing pace, and never stopped running until at least half kilometer away from where the crowd was. As the two of them started to go back down to the street, they could see only a vague sight of the people who gathered around them before. Feeling safe enough to stop, the two started to slow down their pace.

Pausing to regain her breath, Haruhi commented, "You are crazy."

The girl questioned did not answer but take a deep breath, and it was then that Haruhi got the full chance of seeing the face of the rescued girl. The girl was a little shorter than Haruhi was, with a short purple hair adorning her adorable, child-like face. Her eyes were that of golden brown, while her figure was somewhat diminutive. The most surprising fact she found however, was that the girl was wearing the same uniform as Haruhi was – the North High's uniform.

"Do you go to North High?"

The girl glanced at her. "Yes."

Puzzled by this surprising encounter with her own schoolmate, Haruhi did not know how to react. Instead she placed her gaze at the uniform; it was looking extremely sharp in colors and sharp in the curves, just like a new uniform.

"…."

"…"

Silence fell upon them, and Haruhi was about to turn around and get back home when she heard the girl's voice.

"Thank you," the purple haired girl whispered softly, her sharp gazes went onto Haruhi's eyes.

Haruhi, never been thanked by somebody else before, was quite taken aback by the act. "No.. problem," she managed to say in the end. She focused her eyes on the other girl, feeling strangely suspicious. For a North High student, the girl acted as if she was utterly clueless of who Haruhi was. She 

had just started in school too, however, thus deciding whether somebody was new student was not something she was capable of doing. Curiosity raised in her mind, causing her to ask, "Are you.. new?"

The smaller girl, now looking impassively at her, nodded her head as a response.

"Oh," Haruhi replied, somewhat relief as to having her bad reputation unknown yet to one person, at least for this day. "Nice to meet you, uh-"

The girl's eyes fell upon hers for a second as if analyzing the need of introducing herself, but said her name in the end regardless, "Nagato Yuki."

"..Nice to meet you then, Nagato-san."

"…" the purple haired girl gave Haruhi a solemn look, and a questioning look at the same time. Haruhi was a little confused at the look given at her at first, but understood it in the end. The quiet girl was most probably asking her name, tough in an unspoken question.

_A name for a name_, she decided.

"..Suzumiya Haruhi," Haruhi said casually in the end.

* * *

As you may already predict, the romance will be up kinda slow in this fic.. So please bear with it, because I am going to make it as good as I can! After all Haruhi x Yuki is one of my favourite pairs!

Thank you for reading. Review is greatly appreciated!


	3. Chapter 2: The First Song

**Melody of Memory**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. **

September 2007

Haruhi woke up the next morning, feeling a terrible headache striking her head right after she opened her eyes. Ignoring it completely, Haruhi wore her slippers and walked off to the bathroom. She knew the pain would go away later after she took a shower anyway; in most cases it would only bother her the first hour she was awake from slumber. In fact, the headaches occurred almost too often for her to care. After taking a shower and changed her clothes to uniform, she went down the stairs to go eat breakfast in the dining room. Careful not to make any unnecessary noise that would make her dad awoke, Haruhi walked soundlessly to the dining room just to see her mom's figure sitting solely in one of the chair.

Her mom smiled at her as usual, but Haruhi knew better that there was something else hidden underneath all those gestures she was feigning. A sudden surge of sadness filled Haruhi's heart. Suzumiya Shizuno was about to be forty this year, but she already looked like fifty five at this stage. Her almost gray, wavy messy hair hung down weakly from the top of her head, caressing her beautiful heart-shaped face. Her eyes were that of dark brown which no longer shine sharply throughout the years and rather was wearing down with patience Haruhi could seriously understand why. But the most heart-breaking remarks Haruhi always found in her mom was the bruises on her skin. Even when Haruhi tried to avoid looking at it, the bruises were just too visible even underneath all those clothes.

"Good morning, Mom," she greeted her mom and sat herself.

"Morning, Haruhi," the older woman said, "I just feel like eating toast today, so I made it this morning."

Haruhi picked up one of her toast and dumped some strawberry jam on it, "Thanks, mom."

Her Mom smiled. "So.. Is there anything interesting going on in school?"

"..Not really."

"Is that so.."

Mother and daughter enjoyed their morning routine as usual, as the sound of humming birds began engulfing the quiet dining room. Inside, the only sound occupying the room was the soft noises from the movement of putting the tea cups up and down the wooden table. The breakfast might last that way until it finished if only Haruhi did not break the silence in the room.

"Hey, Mom," Haruhi murmured as she put the toast in her hand down and looked at her mom in the eyes. "How.. how much longer are you willing to stay this way?" Haruhi could sense hesitation in her trembling voice.

Her mom's eyes widen in shock at the unexpected topic. "I.. I don't know, Haruhi," she mumbled. "I'm sorry."

Haruhi felt her patience was wearing down in great speed. "Mom," she called, and when the older woman did not respond, she shouted a little bit louder, "Mom!"

"You don't need to shout, Haruhi," the older woman avoided the intense gaze her daughter was giving, and pretended to eat the toast with great interest. "We don't want to make Dad awake, do we?"

"But-"

"Not now, Haruhi. Not today." Her mom's voice was getting more and more nervous.

"SO WHEN?!" Haruhi bellowed. Tolerating the fear reflected in her mother's face when she raised her voice just before, Haruhi lowered her voice and said, "I need your confirmation, Mom."

"Haruhi-"

"Please!" Haruhi pleaded, not forgetting to keep her voice down for her mother's sake.

Unfortunately for Haruhi, the older woman did not answer her back, nor did she look at her for the rest of their time together that morning. Decided that she had lost her appetite right after that moment, Haruhi stood up and left the dining room. She grabbed her school bag and without another word being said to her mom, went off to school.

_It was almost ten at night when Haruhi was done with the fight she had alongside with the mysterious girl who claimed to be a new student in her school. After a brief introduction of their names, the two agreed to head home immediately. The weather was pretty windy that night, so Haruhi was determined to get a warm sleep as soon as possible. That fight had somehow exhausted her in a way, too. _

"_Noooooooooooooooooooo!!" Haruhi was right outside of her house when she heard a screaming voice of a female coming from the inside, which, she recalled painfully, was familiar. _

_Immediately she rushed inside the house and ran her way to where the voice came from. She opened up the door to the living room and as she expected, was deeply angered by the sight of her very Dad threatening the life of his wife – her Mom. He was holding a sheathed black sword on one hand, and broken glass on the other hand. His face was red, most probably because he was drunk rather than mad. His gazes were eerie looking and even showed a resemblance of that of a blood-thirsty killer. His lips were forming a full half-grinning and half-smiling, which somehow emphasized his bad intention. Mom was right in front of him, stepping back with her eyes wide opened, and her lips trembling in fear. Blood _

_was starting to drop from her hands, and Haruhi could tell right away that it was the broken glass in her Dad's hand which did it. _

_Dashing to the middle of the two, Haruhi positioned herself in front of her Mom, and spread her arms open, blocking her Dad's vision. Quietly she muttered, "Please stop." From behind she could hear a soft muttering of her Mom saying her name, "Haruhi.."_

_Her Dad's black eyes met her brown ones, and they stared at each other for so long in silence. Then finally she heard her Dad's voice commanded menacingly, "Move." _

_Despite the shiver she got from her Dad's malicious voice , Haruhi answered bravely, "No."_

_Her Dad swung the sword in his hand in one dangerous gesture at her. "I said, move!" _

"_Please put those things in your hands down first, then," she retorted. "And let Mom go this time."_

"_You-"_

"_She didn't do anything, did she? It's you who always go mad all the time without reason and-"_

_SNAP! Haruhi felt her head was slammed really hard by a ridiculously heavy, stern thing. _

"_Haruhi!" she heard her Mom's worried voice. _

_She felt two hands – none others than her Mom's - were holding her still to keep standing. Determined to protect her Mom, Haruhi forced her knees to keep up, despite how wobbly and dizzy she became. Even though there was no blood, her head was now spinning, and her vision was becoming more and more vague thanks to the direct hit onto her head. This was not the first time she ever got smacked tough, and therefore she was somewhat prepared for this. _

"_Still standing, eh?" a mocking tone who belonged to none other but her Dad, slipped into her ears. "Pretty good."_

_And to her surprise, her Dad left the room without saying or doing anything else. _

Haruhi was still furious when she remembered all those things she went through yesterday. Yesterday was not that bad compared to the other days, but she could not help but feel annoyed with the ever-lasting threat she lived under one roof with. Fortunately her Dad still got a job in the morning until late night, or Haruhi would not have any other choice but to stay with her Mom all days and nights to avoid her being hit. Regardless, she did not understand why her Mom would not just run away with her. With her crazy Dad being super hectic, - save the night time such as yesterday – the chance was always there for them. She had been persuading her since probably ever, and Haruhi had even gotten a job to support their living in case they decided to move together. Or if her Mom got divorced. So why wouldn't she? And even after all those harsh, human-less treatments she got from his husband, why in the world could she still be willing to live with him?

Deep inside in heart tough, Haruhi knew full well the reason why her Mom did so.

_She still loved him. _

Haruhi was by now already in school and was getting ready to go to class when she felt somebody tapped her. "Hey, Haruhi!" It was Kyon who greeted her. "Got into a gangster fight yesterday night?"

Haruhi gave him an irritated look. "Yeah.. But don't tell me it's spreading already in school."

"Did you really get into one?!" Kyon's eyes widen. "I was joking!"

This time it was Haruhi's turn to be surprise. "Huh? You didn't know?"

"No! I was just teasing you."

"Well I did get into a fight yesterday."

"Whew.. I guess you beat them up since you are here in school today safe and sound."

"Uh-huh."

"That's not unusual coming from you, though."

"It can't be helped since I'm the never-ending 'celebrity' of this school, right?" Haruhi shrugged. "I'm sure everybody will know about it by the end of our lunch period."

Kyon laughed. "By the way," he said. "There's a school festival coming right next month."

"Really?" Haruhi frowned.

"I think so. I also heard my class is going to make a haunted house," Kyon claimed. "It's definitely going to be a lot of work."

"Ah.."

"So anyway, just wanna tell you. I'll see you later. Bye!" and off he went.

Decided to do the same, Haruhi stepped lazily into class and even managed to keep her eyes opened during all the lessons.

When lunch time – a.k.a Haruhi's favorite activities in school - came, Haruhi strode in amazing pace down the hall to reach the school's roof faster. She climbed the old steps, opened the decrepit door leading to the roof and finally was relieved to be greeted by the welcoming breeze of the outside world. Haruhi approached her usual spot near the fence, and fixed her gaze to the sight ahead. Winds blew her hair lightly, causing it to flicker beautifully in the middle of the gust. The sun was radiating warmly, exposing the soft color of her skin and at the same time embracing it to a comfortable heat. The 

weather was unquestionably nice, and even felt too contradictory to be true in such a foul mood Haruhi was having. Almost instantly, her thoughts switched to her family.

_Damn.. Why do I have to have such a troublesome father and a stubborn mother? _

Sighing, Haruhi then closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down. A couple minutes later when she felt like she had regained her heart's composure, she sang:

A princess came to this world.

Lived, laughed, and was addicted to a man.

The man was everything to her soul,

The air for her breath, the thought of her mind.

They lived together in harmony, until the day his heart was invaded by demons.

There's no longer joy,

There's no longer home.

But love never left the princess' heart,

And persevere was all she did with her might.

Haruhi paused to regain her breath. Singing had always been her thing. When she was a child and often trapped in dark rooms, she often hummed because she felt afraid of the nothingness around her; it just gave sense of her own existence. When she was happy but nobody was there for her to express her feelings, she constructed the words into lyrics. When she found out that music could say so many unspoken things, she even became more eager to have it in her life. A song had always been a way for her to communicate better with herself, and to express the feelings inside her. As a matter of fact, she had even thought of singing to her parents. Tough in the circumstances she was having now, it seemed unlikely that she would get the chance.

"You have a great voice."

Haruhi turned her back to look at the person who just gave her the compliment, and was baffled with who she saw was approaching her. "Nagato-san?"

The person addressed nodded her head a little, trotted her way to the fence, then stared at the blue sky with her pair of amber eyes. "…"

Haruhi felt restless inside; apparently a little nervous for having somebody overheard her stupid song. Haruhi glimpsed at the other girl, curious as to what the girl really intended to do by coming here. 

The purple haired girl sure looked like enjoying sight-seeing, but she could not declare anything for sure from the poker face the shorter girl was wearing.

As the conversation fell, complete silence was thus exchanged between them. Nagato had already moved her gaze from the upper sky to the scenery below, and Haruhi, inwardly worried as to how gloomy and clumsy she must have sounded with her singing, decided to just copy the action. This was the first time somebody in school _properly_ talked to her, too. During her time attending school, the number of people who greeted her first could still be counted with fingers. As the two stood in silence, two pair of amber eyes stared downward, silently observing the activities around.

Haruhi was about to ask what exactly Nagato was doing in the roof, but realizing that it was an open school place for everybody, cancelled the urge. Anybody could just go here as they wished. It was only that just up until now, it had always been Kyon and herself. Or sometimes a gang of troublemakers bully, but that was mostly it.

"Thank you for the compliment," Haruhi said quietly, still concentrating her gaze down.

"…" Nagato looked at her in an observing look, and characteristically fell back mute. To Haruhi's surprise, however, the quiet girl whispered, "Your lack of musical knowledge did not impair your song at all."

Haruhi glanced at the petite girl, and unconsciously raised her eyebrows. That was the longest speech she ever heard the purple haired girl ever said. That was also the most normal, fearless, easing sentence she ever heard being spoken from people in school aside from Kyon. Nevertheless, she was indeed amused with the topic the petite girl had brought up. Music had always been her true, personal interest. "Do you happen to be… a musician?"

Unexpectedly this time, instead of nodding or saying nothing as the reply, Nagato smiled at her, blistering her amusement. "Yes."

And somehow, as if she was dragged along with Nagato's mood, Haruhi returned the smile happily. "You are?! That's really awesome!" she beamed, somewhat excited. "So, what can you do? Can you sing? What can you play?"

Nagato's eyes, under Haruhi's observation, were now gleaming in what she would interpret as passion. "I do not sing well," she halted for a moment when she was rewarded with an "O" look from Haruhi and continued, "My passion lies in guitars."

Haruhi, probably over-excited as to never having this kind of conversation with anybody else before, asked, "That is amazing!! I have never really played an instrument, and all I can do is singing."

"…"

"Have you made any songs by yourself, Nagato-san?" Haruhi asked eagerly.

The person questioned nodded, not even changing the slightest bit of her expression as she did so.

"That's great."

Again, silence stretched between them, but not too long this time.

"So..," Haruhi began. "This is out of the music topic and just popped up in my mind all of the sudden. But if you don't mind me asking, Nagato-san," she paused, and seeing the agreement in Nagato's gesture, continued, "Yersterday.. Why didn't you just beat the heck out of those guys by yourself?"

Seeing the confusion in the person inquired, Haruhi explained, "I saw you were pretty skilled with martial art. And with your skill, I can see that you are capable of turning them down into dust in two minutes."

Nagato blinked once, and murmured, "I was.. attempting to prove a mere theory into actions."

Haruhi was perplexed. "..Excuse me?"

"…" Nagato's response was silence, but she continued her explaining. "I was applying the theory in books into real actions."

Haruhi still did not get it. "Err… I think I still didn't get what you really were trying to say.."

"I think she meant that she was implying what she just learnt from books, Haruhi." Kyon's voice all of the sudden joined their conversation. Slowly he marched toward the two girls, yawning along the way. "She can learn anything mostly from books."

"Learn anything from books? We DO learn from books, Kyon."

Kyon chuckled. "Right. But not as effective as she does. Nagato-san here is a genius who can absorb the materials she got from books or any other learning stuff in a short period of time. Moreover, she can also imply the 'written theory' into actions."

Haruhi urged Kyon to continue.

"For example, if we learn five hundred pages thick biology book in a week, this Nagato-san can do it in probably.. say, 3 days? Or less, maybe," Kyon stated. "Then as if that alone is not beneficial enough, let's take a driving lesson for an example… Nagato-san can learn to drive through a book, and with probably two to four times practicing the information she got from the books into practical actions, she can already drive a car as smooth as what an advanced driver would seem."

"Wow," was all Haruhi managed to say.

"Did I get it right, Nagato-san?" Kyon asked.

"Much or less," Nagato nodded quietly.

"I didn't know such a person exist before," Haruhi mumbled softly.

"Well, you do now," was Kyon's retort.

"Wait a minute," Haruhi glared at Kyon. "How do you know all this? It's not like you to sound so smart. Don't tell me you have been stalking and investigating on her-"

"No." Kyon grinned. "We are classmates. Nagato-san and I."

"Really?" Haruhi sounded her disbelief. She looked at Nagato to find any sign of lies, but did not find any clues whatsoever in the robot-like expression. "That still doesn't explain why you know all about that, tough."

"Actually, it's all over the school now how our new transfer student is such a genius." He gave Haruhi the look of even-you-should-know-by-now. " And just for information, everybody seems to be making up their own theory as well. Mine seems close enough, though."

"But that doesn't explain the whole thing," Haruhi claimed, glancing at Nagato. "What did you do that make them picked on you?"

Nagato gazed sharply at Haruhi, as if determining whether it was necessary for Haruhi to know about her matter. Ten seconds later, she stated emotionlessly, "I spilled my drink."

"That's it?!" Haruhi was bewildered by the answer. The gang always emphasized small things, she knew, but she somehow got the feeling that the petite girl did not get picked on accident. From the way Nagato answered her question with those experimenting-what-the-books-said things, it seemed as if the girl wanted to have a fight from the beginning. "Oh well.."

_I don't know why, but I got a feeling that she might have spilled her drink on her purpose. She didn't need me to help beating those idiots yesterday. She might have been planning to kick them all! _

"Hold it right there, you two." It was Kyon's voice. "Are you saying that you two met outside of school before?"

"She was there when I got into a fight," Haruhi answered bluntly. "The fight I told you about this morning."

"Ah.. So I see."

Haruhi was about to ask more, but for the first time in her first year of high school, she heard the lunch bell rang herself. She usually needed Kyon to tell her.

"Anyway, it's the bell." Kyon started to walk toward the door. "Let's go down."

The three went down the stairs, and stopped during the intersection of their class.

"See you later, Haruhi."

"See you, Kyon. Nagato-san."

Nagato nodded her head in acknowledgement to her, and turned her back to head the same direction as Kyon.

Along her way to the class as well, Suzumiya Haruhi hummed the melody which all of the sudden flowed into her mind. This time, however, was not a melancholic tone as the one she did before. It was rather a cheerful one.

* * *

Again, thank you for reading.. And I hope somebody gives me a review about what they think about this story so far. You can flame as much as you want, that's fine.

I know the characters are all a little out of.. characters. But I am trying to develop them into the characters we usually see in the real anime. Hope you like it.


	4. Chapter 3: A Guitar

**Melody in Memory**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. **

September 2007

"Are you sure he is doing an out-of town work, Mom?" Haruhi asked dubiously, narrowing her eyes at the question.

Suzumiya Shizuno smiled at her daughter's doubt. "Yes. I saw him left early this morning."

"You are not joking with me, are you?"

"No, Haruhi."

"Then tell me about his expression when he left."

"His expression?" her Mom said, puzzled. "He was irritated, I think."

"How many bags did he bring?"

"Two, I guess."

"What time did he leave?"

"At around five."

"Did he eat breakfast?"

"I believe so," the older woman answered loyally. "I saw some plates he must have used left on the tables this morning."

"Okay.. I believe you, Mom," Haruhi murmured, and ate her rice ravenously. She had somehow gotten a big appetite abruptly. "I'm just checking."

For the next two weeks,the Suzumiya residence was just going to be occupied with two women sharing the same last name – Haruhi and her Mom. Suzumiya Hankuro, the head of the family as well as Haruhi's Dad, was apparently out of town to do some urgent works. This event did not occur all that often, and when it did happen, Haruhi was truly and sincerely grateful to God for the peaceful moment she was going to have. The devil, the source of every misfortune, the god of evils, and the heartless demon was out of town and her house, after all.

"Hey, Mom," Haruhi picked up an egg from the dish plate. "Since he's gone, do you want to do something fun tonight?"

"Something fun, eh?" her Mom's lips twisted a rare smile. "What do you have in mind, Haruhi?"

Seeing that the older woman showed a sign of interest, Haruhi got excited. "I can even skip school today so we can have fun, Mom! How about that?"

"Skipping?" The older woman gave a scolding look at Haruhi. "I don't think so.."

"I'm just kidding Mom." Haruhi smiled. "I know you hate it when I do that."

Her Mom did not answer but just smile in return. Haruhi's heart lit up at the sight of that warm, gorgeous smile which could undoubtedly melt down any men's heart even in her old age. With the smooth white skin and the hourglass body she had, her Mom was a beauty, and it was just unfortunate as to how the charm was masked by the years of being patience and holding back angers, which, needless to say, caused by her Dad. It eased her as to how relief and carefree her Mom seemed to be with no worry of her Dad being around whatsoever. At least for these two weeks, they could enjoy their life.

The thought of asking her Mom again to leave this house crossed Haruhi's mind, but she quickly withdrew it as to not wanting to destroy this happy morning they were scarcely having. It felt like a long time ago since they last had a fun conversation like this one. It actually hurt a little that they rarely got the mood to speak freely to each other like this, but circumstances indeed affected how the conversation between them would be formed. Today, neither of them was burdened or troubled. None of them had the bad mood; none of them spoke in fear in their own house like usual. Freedom was what they were having.

"So..," Haruhi started. "What about a nice dinner with our own favorite meals? I will help you cook it, too!"

"A nice dinner home.. That's not a bad idea," her Mom put her chin in her hand. "Are you sure you don't want to go out for dinner instead?"

"Eating out? Now that you mention it…"

"But anyway Haruhi," the older woman cut her line, smiling. "It's time for you to go to school."

"Right, I almost forgot!" Haruhi picked up her bag and rushed to the front door. "See you, Mom!"

--

Haruhi was already up on the roof when Kyon came to her, telling that he had a class meeting for this break.

"A meeting?"

Kyon shrugged. "We are discussing about that haunted house I was talking about, I guess."

"..Okay then."

"I'm leaving now then," Kyon said, opening the door to go back in.

A minute later, Haruhi was left all alone on top of the school building. She was in such a good mood today that for the first time in high school she answered the teacher's absence call at her in spirit. Leaning her chins in her hands, her thoughts flashed back to her morning conversation with her Mom.

_A nice dinner, eh.. I'd love to treat Mom's dinner, too.. _

The sound of a door creaked open made Haruhi jumped in surprise. She looked back to see who was coming and again found the same figure she saw yesterday marching from inside. In a smooth motion, Nagato Yuki slowly walked over to the fence, carrying a book in her left hand, and an acoustic guitar in her right's. The petite girl gazed at Haruhi for a second, and approached her afterwards.

"A guitar," was what she muttered at first.

A couple seconds later, seeing that Haruhi did not react but look blankly at her, Nagato added, "Try." She offered the guitar in her right hand.

Haruhi was still a little hesitant but after a confirmation nod from Nagato, she took the acoustic guitar in the end. She stared at the wooden instrument for a good minute before laying her hands on it. The guitar had a surprisingly smooth texture, and it even looked shiny under the sunshine. The strings themselves were glimmering under the sunlight, giving them a dazzling look. Overall, the guitar's colors were brown and yellow, somewhat resembling that of Nagato's eyes.

Haruhi was still standing in wonder of the musical thing she got in her hands when she noticed that Nagato was by now sitting with her back on the fence, eyes fixed on the book she carried from before. On her right hand was a pencil which she was using to do something in the books.

Then to Haruhi's surprise, the girl slid the book to her side almost soundlessly. Almost instantly, Haruhi read the title. 'Easy Way to Learn Guitar.'

"Uh," Haruhi muttered awkwardly, feeling a bit shy all of the sudden. She never got such kindness or attention from anyone else before. Let alone a schoolmate. "Thank you, Nagato-san."

Nagato gave a little nod which Haruhi would definitely miss if she did not look at the purple-haired girl.

Admiring the guitar in her hands, Haruhi positioned herself so that she could hold the guitar properly. This was not the first time she touched the guitar – she worked at a music store after all-, but this definitely was the first time she ever got the chance to play it. She knew how to operate the keyboard, the speaker and all, but guitar was somehow the only instrument she had not the chance to play with. She had seen a lot of people on TV hold the guitar, and now was the time for her to imitate them. When she was satisfied with the way the guitar glued on her, Haruhi strummed the strings of the guitar with her fingernails.

Haruhi got excited afterwards, and tried to strum it a little bit more, and this time putting her left fingers on some of the frets. She was really fascinated by the sound produced by the guitar, and even though she knew she was not playing it right, she kept playing it. After a moment of self-satisfactory feeling she gained from the rare musical instrument she ever got to play in her hands, Haruhi realized how clumsy she must seem to be and muttered an apology, "Sorry, Nagato-san," she said, blushing a little in embarrassment. "This is my first time so I was too excited."

"…"

Nagato, Haruhi noticed, had not moved her glance from her direction even once ever since she started messing around with the guitar. The purple haired girl blinked, then shifted her gaze to an empty space on the roof.

" I didn't expect it to be able to produce such a graceful sound.." Haruhi mumbled softly, more to herself than to be heard.

Nagato glimpsed at her for a second, but giving her mute reply as usual the two of them sat in silence afterwards. Aside from the nature's activities, the only audible sound was the noise coming from Haruhi's motion of strumming and picking onto the guitar's strings. While Haruhi was doing that, Nagato was emotionlessly staring at the sky, most likely lost in her own thought.

"Hey," Haruhi pointed all of the sudden. "Can I see you play, Nagato-san?"

The purple haired girl glanced at her, and nodded quietly. Haruhi gave the guitar to its owner, and the petite girl slipped the instrument between her arms smoothly. She started with a simple picking of what sounded like an opening up a song, then moved to a more complex-sounded music. Her left fingers danced skillfully between the frets, and moved in graceful motion each time she did so. For a moment it seemed like the music was jamming out hard and rock, but it changed rapidly to a more mellow state, and on to something like jazz that Haruhi gave up to guess the song's genre in the end. Still, tough, the music composed was one body, despite its various changes. Haruhi listened and stared in amazement ; it seemed to her as if all possible options to do with a guitar was being done by Nagato at that moment. All in all, it was not hard to see how deft a Nagato Yuki was with a guitar.

The song being played by purple haired girl stopped all of the sudden, and Haruhi saw Nagato paused and stretched her fingers for a while. Haruhi was about to compliment the genius girl of her guitar skill when the latter started playing again abruptly. This time, it sounded strangely familiar to Haruhi's ears.

"Are you.. playing the melody I used for my song yesterday?"

Not looking up from where her fingers were dancing, Nagato answered, "Yes."

Haruhi was engraved with adoration at the moment, thus decided to listen further. The lullaby flowed softly and a little bit sadly, vibrating a mellow tone for its listeners. There was a somewhat warm feeling inside Haruhi's heart the more she heard Nagato's play, and slowly Haruhi began to hum. She got 

the words in her brain, but for some reason she just wanted to hum today. The pretty lullaby coming from the guitar was too worth it to be missed today, she decided. The petite girl stole a glance at her as if questioning whether why Haruhi did not sing, but continued playing the guitar afterwards.

On top of the school building, the two were lost in their world of music; Nagato playing the guitar flawlessly, and Haruhi humming the tone gracefully. The music brought them together, united their feeling, making them trapped in the joy of music. After a couple rounds of that song, the short haired girl gave a slight improve to sign its coming end and finally, the song ended.

"That was beautiful," Haruhi claimed.

Nagato's response was as usual, a stiff nod. She then offered the guitar back at Haruhi, who happily accepted it this time. She slipped the instrument between her arms, caressing the wooden surface carefully. Next they sat in silence again, mutely appraising and enjoying the feeling of satisfactory they got after doing some music together. It was the first duet for the two of them, too.

Haruhi stared the guitar in her arms silently, stroking the body gently with her hands. The silence in the air was not awkward or anything, but she just could not help but to express the thought in her head. "Nagato-san," she muttered, breaking the silence. "Haven't you heard about me?"

Nagato looked at her questioningly, but answered, "I have."

For a second, a feeling of pain invaded Haruhi's heart. "I see."

Haruhi was prepared to receive more words regarding that topic from Nagato, but all she heard was nothing but the gust of the wind. The purple haired girl was unbelievably and utterly, quiet. At first Haruhi thought Nagato was only a little bit shy, but it was more likely to think that it was her natural personality to be so.. silent. Judging from the way Nagato brought herself- the way she walked, talked and looked at people - it apparently was not a shy factor. Haruhi was pretty sure that this petite girl could turn somebody furious into plainly afraid by her cold stare, or heartless words spoken using her impassive expression. Harsh words would always seem harsher spoken from a quiet person, that was a fact. Nevertheless, it almost seemed as if she would not speak a word if no one asked her first. She was just simply.. quiet! Haruhi was at lost at vocabulary to describe this girl.

But sometimes, Haruhi thought, not often, the skillful girl could actually be pretty talkative, like yesterday when she explained things. In order to trigger her to speak more, a yes or no question was definitely out; it should be a more why and explanation-demanding questions. But naturally, Haruhi knew that the topic of music was probably the best one she could think of to bring the quiet girl to converse more.

Then as if to betray her conclusion, Nagato spoke first. "For how long have they been informing lies?"

Haruhi was shocked at the straight forwardness of the question. "It's.." she paused, looking at Nagato. "I don't know. I don't bother to keep track of it."

"…"

"How did you.. know?"

"..A nice person will just not ignore man's scream of injustice." the short haired girl stated emotionlessly.

Haruhi was left speechless for a moment as the confusion took place over her brain. When she realized that Nagato was talking about the day they battled the gang, she looked at the quiet girl dubiously.

_As if SHE did scream that time. _

Despite the sarcasm, Haruhi found herself resisting the desire to laugh at that ironic moment, and decided to rest her gaze at the purple haired girl's amber eyes as sternly as she could. It often confused her as to how Nagato was able to explain her answers without straight-forwardly answering them. Haruhi could ask her to explain her answer further, but she could pretty much guess what the latter would say. Somehow, even if they just met two days ago, Haruhi could sense what kind of person Nagato was, and she was sure it was vice versa. There was even no need for the quiet girl to declare that she did not mind being with one rumored-delinquent such as her, for Haruhi was aware of it herself from the moment the petite girl answered her question. Beyond their knowledge, there was already a strong, unspoken understanding formed between the two.

"Probably," Haruhi said, decided to wrap the topic off. "By the way.. Kyon mentioned you are a genius," She paused for a moment, and strummed all the guitar strings once. "Did you really learn to fight that good by books alone??"

Nagato gestured a yes from the motion her head was doing.

"That's amazing.. "

"It is far from perfect for it has weaknesses," Nagato admitted abruptly, sounding a little anxious. It seemed like the topic interested her to the point she spoke up more.

"It really has one?" Haruhi asked, not convinced.

"A few," Nagato replied bluntly. "First, I cannot master anything with this extra advantage I possess."

"Really?" Haruhi said, incredulity filling her tone. If the girl claimed that the martial art skill she possessed did not quite fit the terms of 'mastering', then she would definitely fear what Nagato would be like when she got the grip on it.

"Yes. Mastering something means that you truly have put your heart and minds into it. Abilities alone are not enough," the purple haired girl explained. "In this case, I do not own the ability to put my heart and minds into something I just.. naturally learned."

_I know she can talk a lot. _

Haruhi smiled at her random thought. "I see your point," she said, nodding her understanding. "What are the other weaknesses?"

"The other one I have discovered is my inability of learning specific topics." Nagato muttered softly. "For examples, cooking and music."

"Are you serious?! You can't learn cooking and music with that ability of yours?"

"…" Nagato paused briefly, looking thoughtful in the moment passing before saying, "I must try the way normal people do it."

"That's interesting.." Haruhi mumbled under her breath. "So that means you learn guitar without relying on your special skill, right?"

The purple haired girl nodded.

Seeing the familiar nod coming back from Nagato, Haruhi raised her eyebrows slightly, feeling amused. She had come to realize that if the reply coming from Nagato was nothing but a head movement, the question either be a yes or no question, or mundane for the genius' attention. Or other reasons she just had not yet discovered. Haruhi made no attempt to reply this time, and had begun messing around with the guitar.

She opened up the book Nagato slid to her, scanned the details of the pages as maximal as she could, and noticed the handwriting of Nagato on the book. It was a tiny, neat handwriting which revealed the creators personality greatly. The purple haired girl had noted 'important' on some of the information, and in some of them also added a couple sentences as to how to understand the lesson better. The book would indeed assist a great aid, but Haruhi felt unease troubling her heart.

Haruhi closed the book in her left hand, and stared in the guitar. She wanted to learn how to play guitar properly, with the right basic. An idea suddenly flickered in Haruhi's brain, causing the latter to feel so stupid for never thought about it sooner. Nagato could of course be her teacher! The idea seemed really reasonable for her, seeing how skillful the girl was with guitar. She could just ask her questions without having to ask her personally to be her teacher.. but if she just asked questions, she doubted she would improve fast, for she did not know her capability of autodidact in music. But if she did want to have a teacher..

Then she had to ask. For help.

And the horrible fact was of course - Suzumiya Haruhi had never _asked _somebody to _help _her in almost anything.

She had always been really stubborn, refusing to give up and requested somebody's help when it was even most needed. She shooed away every offers of helping, and determined to do it by herself, without anyone else. The very thought of begging had annoyed her to the point where she thought she 

was being the weakest person in the world for asking aid to solve a mere, simple problem. For Haruhi, asking for help would be too much insulting to her pride.

"Hmm.." Having been by herself for most of the times, Haruhi was used to be lost in her own thought in the middle of something. It would continue that way for the rest of the break had she not heard the sound of bristling skirt caused by Nagato's attempt to shift her position. It snapped Haruhi back to the present, reminding her of somebody who was presence beside her.

"Sorry, uh-" Haruhi murmured, realizing she must have been spacing out because Nagato was now looking at her without blinking. "I was thinking about.." she hesitated for a second, but continued, "learning guitar."

Nagato eyed her intensely for some seconds as if trying to spot some dishonesty factor, but then stayed emotionlessly afterwards.

"…"

Embarrassment filled Haruhi's thought utterly, and she struggled to keep her demeanor controlled. After a while of self-debate which resulted in victory for her innate music ambition, Haruhi declared in a low voice, "I need to find somebody who is capable to be a teacher."

The other person, seeming to be perceptive from the way her eyes glimmered, was undisturbed as always and unsurprisingly did not bother to give a response.

"I was thinking..," Haruhi stuttered, heat began to rise up in her body as she felt nervous. Apparently a simple question of help meant a thousand times more nerve-wrecking for her. "That if it's not a bother, can.." she halted for a while. "..Can you teach me, Nagato-san?"

Haruhi sighed in relief as she managed to avoid the word she hated the most to come out of her lips. She looked at the purple haired girl, and seeing that the girl did nothing but blink on her, Haruhi could not help but started to sweat. If her request were rejected, then she would bear a self shame on her mind for the rest of her life.

An hour it felt like for Haruhi, but in reality ten seconds later Nagato answered with a nod.

To even more surprise for Haruhi, the short haired girl twisted her lips to a smile, as if reassuring that she did not need to say anymore to confirm the help coming.

Haruhi had already seen the smile for more than twice now, and she always thought that the purple haired girl must have gotten a lot of friends –not to mention admires- had she smiled more often to people. She had not seen the petite girl outside of lunch time, but she just got the feeling telling her that the girl did not smile too often to any people. Somehow seeing the quiet girl had made her see a bit of her introverted self, only from a different perspective. In fact today and yesterday counted as the day Haruhi spoke the most to other –in this case meaning Nagato - than her usual routines (family, Kyon, people at work).

Haruhi grinned, more because how funny it seemed that they could both smile and converse somewhat friendly to each other. No matter how and where you looked at it, at the first glance they were completely two different persons; one a trouble maker delinquent, the other a respectful, prodigy student.

_Who would ever guess that the probably most intelligent girl in this school would agree to help ME at her second day of school? _

Happy, Haruhi returned the smile. "When will we start then?" she asked, eager to start right away.

The quiet girl took her time of retorting, but said, "Anytime."

Haruhi pushed her brain to think. If she wanted to learn guitar, now would be the best time to do it since her Dad - who always strangled her with the perilous manner of his - would not be in town. She got two weeks off without her Dad starting today, which meant that she would pretty much have her usual time of guarding her Mom to do nothing. Then she would also have the free times around weekends when what she usually did was being on standby near her Mom in the house since her Dad would sometimes be at home as well. With the way things were now, she could always move around independently without time limit for these two weeks. Moreover, she could even invite Nagato to her house, seeing that her father would not be there to horrify the guest.

She had to use these two weeks as useful as possible.

"When will you have time, Nagato-san?"

"I am free after school." Nagato stated the information emotionlessly.

"You mean everyday?"

"Most of the days."

"Hmm.."

To Haruhi's surprise, Nagato stood up abruptly. "Inform me when you are done thinking."

"Okay," Haruhi nodded, still a little bit surprise at the sudden, ghost-like movement done by the petite girl.

"…" The smaller girl took a step forward, but turned back and inquired, "Do you want to take the guitar with you?"

Haruhi' s eyes widen. "Can I?"

The quiet girl gazed at Haruhi for a moment before answering, "Yes." Without any more words, Nagato then strode past Haruhi, off to the door where she smoothly opened it and took the stairs back down.

For the next five minutes before the lunch bell rang, Haruhi was left alone with the guitar and its guide book, thinking.

* * *

I want to say thanks to Roxius who beta-read this fic, and to zakura who gave me a review -thank you so much for the support.

And also, thank you all for reading, and I hope you still like it; the climax have not yet come after all. Review is really, really appreciated..


	5. Chapter 4: Tea

**Melody of Memory**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. **

September 2007 

It was a hectic Saturday morning where most people seemed to go out to the same place, for the same purpose and destination, all in the same day. The Habuya shopping district -where the music store Haruhi was employed in was located - was awfully crowded by people from the edge of the street to the other side of it. Restaurants, gift shops, book stores were all engulfed with the excitement of shopping. The music store was no exception, and it was having its busiest times of the day this morning.

Haruhi had been working extra hard today, taking the shift from morning until the evening. She became the cashier when somebody wanted to check out something, and at the same time never stopped answering any questions directed to her. Parents, kids, students and many others had come in and out this store from the time the store opened, and a lot had been purchasing the items as well. Even Yamato-san was helping, encouraging customers to buy more of the music instruments. It was one of the busiest days of their work - the weekend. And poor Haruhi happened to have a shift this Saturday.

As the day getting darker, the number of people coming to the store started to reduce as the tendency of going home had began to creep its way into the mind. Eventually, evening had come and Haruhi's shift was finally over. Exhausted but relieved, Haruhi quickly changed her clothes into something more casual, and brought herself to the corner side of the shop, then stared outside. She was waiting for Kyon to pick her up in the store, and was somewhat glad to see the boy's face as he appeared in front of the door ten minutes later.

"Hey," he greeted her casually.

Haruhi stared at Kyon. "You're late. I've even thought of cancelling."

Kyon looked back fearfully. "Sorry, Haruhi. I lost my way because there was almost like a thousand people here, don't you think?"

"Oh,is it Kyon?" Yamato-san's voice suddenly vibrated within the store. He walked to where the pair was standing, and smiled. "How are you, young man?"

Kyon beamed a polite smile. "Good, thank you Yamato-san. How about you?"

The old man tapped his chest with his fist. "Never better! Weekend is the best!"

Seeing the older man's spirit, Kyon grinned. "Good for you, Yamato-san."

"So, Haruhi," the old man turned to face Haruhi. "I guess you are leaving now then?"

"Yes, Yamato-san."

"I will see you on Monday then," the old man smiled. "Take care, you two."

The two smiled back and said, "We will. Bye!"

--

"Do you understand this one?" Haruhi asked patiently, pointing her pencil in a math book Kyon was holding. "It's easy. All you have to do-"

"Ahh!! I don't get it!" Kyon scratched her head, signing his stress. "I need to take a break, Haruhi."

Haruhi shrugged. "I guess we do need one."

Sighing for no reason, Haruhi leaned back in her chair, and took a deep breath. She and Kyon were currently studying in a coffee shop in Habuya shopping district called "Red Bean". Aside from the inviting wooden environment, the café was a cozy and fun place to hang out and as Haruhi had observed, to study as well. It had those kinds of fluffy, big sofas and a lot of space between each of their seats and tables so that every customers could maintain their privacy. The food was not bad at all, and the beverages they served were outstanding, especially the coffee. They both loved to hang out here, and often spent their entire day left here chatting.

Today, however, Kyon had especially asked Haruhi to teach him mathematics. They had been spending over two hours of studying, and finally Kyon's brain had begun to cry its trouble of accepting some more knowledge. It was understandable, though, considering that he had studied seriously the moment he sat himself on the sofa. Haruhi, on the other hand, exceptionally smart on this particular subject as she was, had no trouble for teaching or studying at all.

Heaving a long sigh, Kyon leaned his back on the bouncy sofa. "My head is probably cracked."

"Do you still want to continue?" Haruhi murmured, slurping down her milk tea from the cup.

"I don't know.." the boy groaned.

"I'm fine either way."

"Oh well.." Kyon mumbled. "I wish I could just be as smart as Nagato-san and get these math problems out of the way.."

Haruhi did not reply, and continued drinking her milk tea. Slurping it with delight, Haruhi blissfully savored the sweet taste forming in her mouth. No matter where she went, it was always her favorite drink to have - milk tea. And Red Bean Café, an outstanding café as it was, served probably one of the best milk tea she ever tasted.

"By the way," Kyon said, looking at Haruhi. "Exactly how good was Nagato-san in.. fighting?"

"I must say.. That she might be better than me."

"Better than you?!" Kyon frowned. "She didn't look like she is strong, tough."

Haruhi said a matter of factly, "It's not that surprising coming from a genius, is it?"

"I guess so." Kyon shrugged. "I have to be careful not to make her angry then."

"Speaking of her," Haruhi said, suddenly remembering. "She is going to teach me guitar."

Kyon's eyes widen in interest. "She is?! How come?"

"Well.." Haruhi mumbled, directing her gaze at the liquid in her cup. "You can say I asked her to."

Despite the vague shaken movement from Kyon, Haruhi knew he almost jumped out off his seat in surprise. "You did!?"

"Yeah.."

"Hmm.. Guess you guys get along pretty well, huh?" Kyon inquired, raising one of his eyebrows. "So when will you two do it? I know you like music.."

"I want to start as fast as I can," Haruhi said animatedly. "What do you think?"

"Well, with your Dad being gone and all, let's just say.. that you should learn everyday whenever you can?"

Haruhi grumbled, "That's not giving a real answer, but well.. that's true enough." Upon receiving the news about her family whereabouts, Kyon was always the one Haruhi could tell the story to. He was the only one who knew about her family, her Dad's problematic issues, and the circumstances she was in.

"You have two weeks free of him, right?" Kyon pointed out. "That's really great. I bet your Mom is happy too."

"She looks like it," Haruhi answered thoughtfully. Her Mom sure appeared to look happier than usual, so that was a good sign. "She smiles more, too."

"You too, you know," Kyon contemplated, smiling at Haruhi.

"…" Haruhi felt heat rising up to her cheek, and tried to hide it by bringing up the tea cup to her lips and drank it ravenously. She did not know why she blushed in the first place, but somehow it just crept its way up.

The boy laughed in ease with reason unknown for Haruhi, and picked up his cappuccino to his mouth. After a short period of silence which Haruhi used to recover the normal color in her cheeks, she broke it by asking, "Anyway Kyon, do you want to learn it too?"

"What? Guitar? No, thanks," Kyon answered quickly, showing no interest whatsoever. "I don't think I'm into that kind of stuff."

"Okay then," Haruhi grimaced slightly at the lack of interest in Kyon's voice. She fell quiet for a moment, fidgeting the sofa with her thumbs.

"Seeing that you are so thoughtful about it.." Kyon picked up a pen, playing it on his fingers. "Why don't you just meet Nagato-san now?"

"Now??" Haruhi's face turned into a confused one. "I can always meet her at school, don't you think?"

"Well.." Kyon mumbled, "I just thought you might want to start early.. say, tomorrow."

"You're right. I do want to start early.. But I don't know where she lives," Haruhi looked idly at her companion. "And I don't know her phone numbers either."

Kyon smiled. "She works at the library today."

--

The Habuya shopping district in the evening was still occupied with rushing people from all directions, tough not that many compared to the earlier time. Kyon and Haruhi walked side by side, slowly approaching the public library located in the end of the street, about five minutes walking from the Red Bean café.

"I'm getting suspicious.." Haruhi started, narrowing down her eyes to the point where she obviously looked doubtful. "It seems like you spy on Nagato-san. For knowing all these things about her."

Kyon grinned, indifferent. "We are classmate.. so it can't be helped."

"Still, it sounds too.. strange."

"If you're talking about why I know where she works, it's because of the class activities we had going on," Kyon explained dutifully. "Nagato said she couldn't help because she had to work at the library."

Haruhi eyed the boy from the corner of her eyes and asked suspiciously, "And what kind of class activities are you referring to again?"

"Just a regular meeting to talk about the school festival."

"And you didn't come because you needed to have a math lesson with me?" Haruhi asked doubtfully.

"Exactly," Kyon grinned widely, and his grin even grew wider seeing the look of disbelief in Haruhi's face.

The next moment, the two were both standing in front of the public library's entrance. The library was rather medieval, three stories building, with an appearance strong enough despite its apparent ages. It had a black huge door blocking the view of the inside place, and lots of windows encrypted on the wall. A big sign of "LIBRARY" was hanging on top of the door, welcoming every person who wished to see the inside.

Opening up the giant door, Kyon and Haruhi stepped inside, and were both inwardly amazed of how neat, smart but at the same time cozy looking the library looked. The quietness, however, was the most striking evidence of what vicinity they were entering; Haruhi even felt like she and Kyon were the only one breathing and moving in this building. As their footsteps echoed softly down the hall, the two marched forward. On the right side of the floor there was a bunch of big glassy tables and chairs circling all over it, clearly indicating a study hall section. Right directly in front, tall shelves of all kinds of books lined up neatly, assembling a horizontal line. On the left was a stair leading to the second floor where the more studying-purpose books such as dictionary were located. The library was pretty big, and seemed to be pretty organized at the way things looked.

Haruhi shifted her glance around. "So where could your classmate be, Kyon?"

"This is my first time here, so.." Kyon murmured. "I don't know. Let's just look around."

The two then walked idly from shelves to shelves, gazing around every now and then, only to see other people but Nagato. Haruhi was about to give up if only Kyon did not encourage her to search further. They explored the whole first floor, and finally were rewarded with the sight of a petite, purple haired girl tidying and cleaning up the glassy tables in the study area.

"Nagato-san!" Kyon shouted first, waving his hand.

The person addressed, puzzled as she was, turned her face to the direction she was called. Then slowly and soundlessly, she slid towards Haruhi and Kyon until their distance was no more than half a meter. She looked up at the taller pair with her amber eyes, waiting for the pair to speak.

"Hey, Nagato-san," Kyon greeted the purple haired girl.

"Can I help you?" Nagato in return asked bluntly, not wasting any time for pointless conversation. With the formality of the question, the purple haired girl had just sounded like a true faithful worker of her job in the library.

.._She must have thought we were looking for something in the library. _

"Ah, yes." Kyon muttered, still looking shocked for the directness of the question. "I believe Haruhi has something to talk about with you."

"Uh.. That's right," Haruhi stuttered, unprepared to be pointed to be the main speaker all that sudden. She thought Kyon was going to talk more; he was the one who had the skills at this kind of things, after all. "I was going to ask if you are alright with the schedule I have in mind," she muttered. "For the guitar lesson."

The purple haired girl listened, but made no inclination to response.

"Do you need us to wait until you are done working to talk, Nagato-san?" Kyon offered, strangely perceptive.

The other girl glanced at Haruhi, then back to Kyon before nodding her head slightly.

Not giving Haruhi a chance to think, Kyon chirped in, "Alright. How long?"

"Ten minutes," Nagato claimed, then without waiting for confirmation, quickly strode on to finish her work, leaving the pair waiting for her to dwell in silence. Exactly ten minutes later, the purple haired girl came out of a staff room from right below the stairs, having taken off her work-clothes completely. The workers' ID card she had on before was now lacking, and instead revealed was the white jacket she had on. The petite girl approached the pair, and silently positioned herself in front of them.

"Let's talk somewhere else but the library, shall we?" Haruhi suggested, looking at the shorter girl. Haruhi had come to notice that their conversing voices were the only one echoing through within the building; had they not been there, it would be a perfect silence. Apparently library was not a place to do talking.

"…"

"I know!" Kyon cried happily. "We can all go to Red Bean!"

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "Again??"

"Yeah, why not?" he insisted. "What do you think, Nagato-san?"

"Sure," was what the petite girl whispered after a thoughtful seconds.

Then as it was decided that the three went back to the café, time flew by faster that day that night was already on the fall. As the sky was getting darker, the rain crushed the earth afterwards, wetting the ground with its splatters of rainfalls. Haruhi, Kyon, and Nagato were still in the café by that time, mostly chatting about everything they could think of. Nagato was not much of a speaker, of course, but she stayed in her seat regardless. She spoke the most when Haruhi brought up the guitar lesson topic, which ended with an agreement of Haruhi coming to Nagato's house everyday this week, excluding the time they both needed to work - which some of them astoundingly happened to be close. The purple haired girl neither questioned Haruhi's hastiness of learning, nor asking for any further explanation; she just agreed.

Half an hour later, as the rain started to halt its progress of plopping down onto earth, the trio decided to go back to their houses. Kyon because he had his curfew, Haruhi because she thought her Mom would be feeling lonely by now, and Nagato for she had nobody else who sought company with her.

Kyon had already rushed to the train station by the time they exited the café, thus leaving the girls by themselves. Later as Haruhi asked, it turned out that the two of them had the same path to take in order to go back home. Therefore they just automatically walked together, side by side as the drizzle started to disappear. As they reached an intersection near a wooden bridge, they ran off to a couple of nights before, Nagato halted abruptly.

"So your house is that way?" Haruhi inquired, halting her steps as well.

Nagato nodded quietly, looking straight at Haruhi's eyes.

"I will.. see you tomorrow morning, then?"

"Yes," came the latter's reply.

With that, Haruhi turned to the left, and Nagato to the right.

--

Haruhi woke up rather early for a weekend record the next morning, feeling strangely refreshed by the morning breeze coming from the window. The cool wind gently brushed past her body, making the weather somewhat comforting for her body to move around. After taking a quick shower, she wore her slippers and trotted her way down to the first floor where she met her Mom doing her daily morning activities. The older woman had an apron on, and was having her hair tied up into a ponytail, indicating the full concentration she had in what she was doing. Her face was stern with concentration, and her eyes never left the food she was cooking. As her right hand was holding a spatula to stir the food, the other was busy holding a thick-looking book which Haruhi guessed to be a cook book judging from the way the vertical lists on the pages looked like.

Haruhi step forward, approaching the woman who gave birth to her. "Smells good from here, Mom."

The forty years old woman shifted her glance from the book she had on her hands and smiled at seeing her approaching daughter. "Rare to see you up early, Haruhi."

"Uh, yeah.. I just felt like it."

"That's good. Breakfast will be ready in a couple minutes, too."

"Okay," Haruhi retorted, sitting herself in a chair while sliding the newspaper to her direction. She started to scan through them, searching for anything interesting possibly going on. She did not find 

any through the first ten pages, thus refusing to bore herself further, folded it back in half and put it back down.

She took a look closer at her Mom instead, observing the older woman in solemn look. It had been almost over fifteen years that her Mom prepared breakfast for her; it even puzzled her as to how dutiful her Mom was at preparing breakfast. One of the reasons she could think about was the fact that breakfast was the only time when the older woman would get the chance to personally talk or be with her daughter in ease, for her Dad would never be up at around that time. The other reasons might just be her Mom's fondness of cooking, or her determination of filling the stomach in the morning. Other than breakfast, tough, her Mom never prepared lunch boxes for her, and dinner was usually bought or made beforehand when Haruhi came back after work or school.

It was kind of sad to point out that it had been more than three years ago since their family had a nice dinner, or breakfast for that matter - together at home. Not to mention that they automatically did not even have any chance to eat out somewhere as a family anymore, either. Her Dad had changed so much – from already bad to even worse- over these three years, and that greatly influenced the way the family was getting along. Whether he cheated with another woman outside, or he was just having a serious mental problem, Haruhi had no idea.

All she was aware of was the fact that starting from three years ago, she had trouble ignoring a lot eerie, loud noises coming from downstairs which bothered her sleep to no end. When her patience and curiosity finally won the best out of her, she made up her mind to find the source of all the sounds. As she tentatively sneaked a look of what might be going on, the poor twelve years old Haruhi just ran upstairs immediately as crafty and soundlessly as she could the moment she had interpreted what her eyes had laid sight on. Even a twelve years old kid like her could blatantly notice the jeopardy going on; all the noises she heard came from none other than her parents. Fear was what lingered on her body and soul for the first six months, but peering over the figure of her crying Mom somehow made her attempted to overcome the feeling and instead shifted it to determination of protecting the only person who gave birth to her. From that point on, her Mom was her first priority, while her Dad might have fallen down to the last.

The tone of what sounded like her Mom's crisp humming tone immediately grabbed her utmost attention, sending her thoughts back to the current time. The older woman had been in apparent joyful mood ever since yesterday, especially when they had the nice dinner out together last night. The two really enjoyed their time to the fullest, and even laughed together like teenagers hanging out together. It was indeed a bliss for her to watch her mother glimmer in such a happiness, Haruhi decided. She never heard her Mom hummed before, let alone expressing her joy in any forms but small smiles. When working like this, her Mom truly looked like those ordinary, happy housewives in films who was blessed with great children, and loving husband whom none other guy could match. In this state, it would never occur to anybody that she had a devilish, bad-tempered, rampaging mad husband which she actually did in fact.

Sighing in lost thought, Haruhi saw her Mom was done with the cooking and was offering the rice to her. The breakfast menu for today was a new-looking tofu soup with boiled shrimps and also rice, as usual. It smelled wonderful, and just having the steamy bowl of the soup near her was enough to make Haruhi's stomach growl in hunger. After doing a self prayer, the two dig into the delicious meals.

"I am going to have a guitar lesson starting from today on, Mom," Haruhi said in the midst of her tofu's chewing. "I will be out for a while today."

"How exciting," the older woman chirped animatedly, apparently having a good mood. "Are you doing it with Kyon?"

"No, he doesn't seem interested. I am doing it with somebody else."

Her Mom beamed a motherly smile. "That's great for you to have somebody else to hang out with, Haruhi."

"Hmph.. It's-"

"You will get there, don't worry," the forty years old woman assured, cutting her daughter's line. "Just like old times."

"…" Haruhi sighed in defeat, offering no retort to her Mom's words.

The rest of the breakfast went with ordinary chit-chat, without flames or debates. In the midst of their morning chat, Suzumiya Shizuno observed her daughter carefully as the younger girl talked and ate. She was indeed happy by Haruhi's excitement of learning guitar, for she knew that music had always been in the girl's soul and interest. As a mother, she knew for a fact that deep down in Haruhi's heart was buried a soul contemplating to receive attention, to prove the talents hidden underneath that cold, rebellious demeanor she wore. Ever since she was small, Haruhi was originally a cheerful, vivacious girl with stubborn personality once something got into her mind. Unfortunately circumstances were going the way it was now, and the energetic personality had now long been buried that Haruhi had even gotten used to having heard none of its cries anymore. The girl had gotten used to her current cold self now, all because of family problems.

Nevertheless, seeing how cheerful Haruhi was, the older woman got the feeling that it might be possible to reawake the old Haruhi. Probably.

"Hey Mom, I'm finished putting the dishes away." Haruhi's voice cried from the kitchen.

"..Thanks, Haruhi." the older woman responded, still a little at trance. She then stood up softly, sliding the chair back in.

Haruhi grabbed the guitar on the chair and said, "I'll be going now then!" Without waiting for a reply she sped up to the front door, hurrying down to the road.

Inside the house, Suzumiya Shizuno smiled to her heart content; fervently gracious as to how lively her daughter seemed to be.

Five minutes later, Haruhi could be found tracing her way to Nagato's house, carrying the guitar she was lent by with one hand, and a piece of paper on the other. The purple haired girl had given her the addresses of where she lived, and even drew a map over their times hanging out yesterday. She remembered the interception where they separated yesterday, so finding the girl's house took no further than a ten minute walk and that made the trip fast and easy. After a while gliding restlessly down the street, she was finally greeted by a view of a modern looking apartment, all tall and glassy with bright scenery of plants and flowers surrounding the meticulously trimmed bushes. The environment was indeed beautiful, and one would not need to guess as to how the price to live there would assist its impeccable beauty.

Haruhi stared dubiously at the address written down on the paper on her hand. It said Fumiya Apartment number 708. So she was there, all right.

Haruhi entered the expensive-looking building slowly, stealing glances around as she made her way to the elevator. It was very white; the tiles were shiny with the white marble tiles, cozy with the leather carpet, and angelical with the all white-painted walls. Some of the decorations were not plain white, however, but nearly eighty percent of them were white. Upon using white as its domain color, the owner had apparently succeeded in exaggerating the sense of cleanliness and neatness of the apartment. Amazed, Haruhi slid in the elevator, pushed number 7 and finally arrived there after waiting for a while. As expected, this very floor was decorated in white as well, although not as flashy and shiny as the first one. Haruhi immediately searched for room 708, and when she found it, prepared herself to push the bell.

But before she even laid her hand on the small round button, the door swung open, welcoming the small figure of Nagato Yuki. The purple haired girl had a pair of white short on with a blue T-shirt twice as big her size as the top. To match what she wore, the purple haired girl also had a pair of white, fuzzy looking slippers on. The soap smells eradicating from her body told Haruhi that the quiet girl had just recently taken a shower.

Nagato-san moved her body aside, giving Haruhi more space to walk in.

"Thank you," Haruhi said automatically.

Nagato watched Haruhi taking her shoes off, then laid out a pair of white slippers like the one she was having on the floor as soon as the latter was finished.

"Ah-alright," Haruhi responded, quickly took the slippers and put it on. Her eyes went exploring the room she was in; a neat, pastel-colored wallpaper with an unexpectedly small space – for such a glamorous apartment, that was. Frankly she had expected a bigger, more spacious room than this, considering the building's size. Haruhi's thought was quickly recovered to the present as she questioned, "Are your parents home, Nagato-san?"

"No," Nagato answered simply, now carrying a tray with cups of hot tea.

_When the heck did she make tea? I did not even hear her moving! _

Almost soundlessly as well, Nagato placed a cup at each of the opposing side of the tables, and gazed at Haruhi mutely. Instinctively Haruhi walked to the table and sat herself, followed by Nagato. She peered at the hot fumes from the tea surface, but took a slurp regardless.

Then to Haruhi's utmost surprise, Nagato stated in low voice, "This is the only thing I am capable of to make." The petite girl locked her gaze on the cup in her hands, and Haruhi could swear that she sensed some shyness in the eyes of the purple haired girl.

"That's.." Haruhi scanned through for some fitting words to say, but did not come up with any and said instead, "The tea tastes good, Nagato-san."

"…"

Knowing not of what to say, Haruhi sat in silence, as the quietness once again fell between them. Some minutes passed by, and neither of the two seemed to be convinced as to what they should do next. Nagato had not yet shown any sign of teaching, and Haruhi, determined to be in a good term with her teacher as possible, remained patience. She started to wonder if she needed to gulp out the whole tea in the cup in order for them to move up to the next section of guitar lesson. She was trying to sip the liquid as fast as she could, as a thought suddenly flickered in her mind.

"Have you ever made milk tea, Nagato-san?" Haruhi inquired, curiosity in her voice.

The other girl shook her head as the answer, tough a somewhat interested expression was stapled on her face.

"It's easy," Haruhi claimed. "Do you have some milk?"

The quiet girl nodded.

Haruhi stood up. "Then I will show you!"

Carrying both of the cups in her hands, Haruhi went off to the kitchen, followed behind by Nagato. As she entered the kitchen, Haruhi was greeted with the same pastel color wallpaper; although instead of having carpet like the other rooms did, the kitchen had white tiles. Almost immediately Nagato let a carton of milk out of the refrigerator, and gave it to Haruhi.

"All you do is pour it out to regular tea, probably around a third amount of the tea existed." Haruhi said, showing Nagato the action to her own tea as she spoke. "But it still depends on how you like it. If you like it milky, then feel free to add more milk."

Nagato watched the movement closely, and Haruhi could see the former's eyes widen slightly as the dark liquid grew lighter. As Haruhi was done pouring out the milk to her cup, she offered the carton to Nagato and stirred the tea with a spoon, gently mixing it. The purple haired girl quietly repeated the 

action Haruhi had just done, and after a moment of careful milk-pouring act, she put the milk down near the sink. Giving the spoon to the shorter girl, Haruhi observed Nagato as the latter pulled up the cup and drank the milk tea.

"It is delicious," was what the purple haired girl whispered afterwards.

"That's because your regular tea was good already." Haruhi smiled, taking a sip from her own milk tea. "You can make the cold version of this milk tea, too, of course. And you can add sugar if you want to, too."

"…" the quiet girl gave no reply, and drank the milk tea she just made impassively. A while later, during the time both of them were enjoying the tea, Nagato muttered softly, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

The quiet girl then put her cup down, strode back to the living room, and soon enough opened up a door to reveal another room. Neither of them was in hurry at that time, but Nagato seemed to be moving extremely fast after she drank the tea. Haruhi was astonished by the walking speed the petite girl had just showed, but rushed behind the girl as fast as she could. Nagato then entered in, followed by Haruhi whose eyes could not shine in any less adoration of what she had just seen. The room was still dressed and adorned the same way as the others, but this time it served the purpose of what seemed like a music room with a black grand piano, one electric and acoustic guitar, and quite a bunch of amplifiers. On the right corner there was a small cabinet with shelves full of books and notes, while on the other one a handful cables were gathered.

"This room.." Haruhi muttered in utter wonder, completely amazed at the room. Her eyes were glimmering in excitement no matter where she looked. "..is fantastic."

Nagato made no attempt to comply and instead stood mutely in front of Haruhi. The next minutes afterwards were spent entirely with silence between them; Haruhi wandering and glancing around in the room, and Nagato sitting on the carpet with a guitar on her arms. The two were doing activities on their own, but nevertheless they were engulfed in the same world of interest. Patiently and silently, Nagato waited for Haruhi to finish her observation of the room. Finally, as Haruhi's eyes had a reflection of satisfactory in it, Nagato looked up from her guitar and found the other's eyes were on her as well.

Softly, Nagato asked, "..Shall we start?"

"Sure."

* * *

Well, here's the fifth chapter! Many thanks to those who reads and reviewed; Roxius, Sonata82, and zakura. Thank you so much! Your reviews are like my fuel.

And extra, many many thanks to Roxius for becoming the beta-reader. You're awesome.

Hope you all enjoy this chapter, and as usual, reviews are really appreciated. Thanks for reading.


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